Latest Development on the Farm Bill – We Need to Mobilize Now!
Some bad news came in from Washington yesterday, but there’s a silver lining… The Senate voted 67-31 to proceed with a vote to pass the 6-month Continuing Resolution that the House passed last week, extending 2012 funding levels until March 27, 2013. The actual vote will take place in the next few days and is […]
The Importance of Farmer Training Programs
Thousands of farmers and ranchers from around the country have benefited from trainings and educational events paid for by the USDA’s funding initiative, the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program. However, all these trainings are at risk unless Congress backs down on its attempt to use the program as a budgetary scapegoat: in the next […]
Hudson Valley Farmers Speak Up at the Farmers' Forum
A US Farm Bill potentially worth nearly one trillion dollars over ten years has stalled in Congress, and with it the hopes of young farmers, conservationists and agriculturalists in general have stalled as well. When Congress returns to Washington in September, they have only until the end of the month, September 30th, before the current […]
What's the Hold Up with the Farm Bill?
For those hoping to see some advancement on the US Farm Bill, this summer has so far been a disappointment. With less than two months remaining before the expiration of the current bill, the process to create the Farm Bill of 2012 continues to be a victim of election year politics. Here is a quick […]
Oklahoma Farmers Appeal to Congressman Lucas for Support
Recently, a group of Oklahoma’s finest young farmers met with Congressman Frank Lucas (R-OK) to discuss the US Farm Bill and the needs of Oklahoma’s next generation of food producers. The meeting was organized by Samantha Joelle Honey Lamb, a greenhorn farmer of 3 years in Hobart, Oklahoma. The proprietor of Early Bird Acres, she […]
For the Native and the New
It was less than 90 years ago when the perfect storm of environmental destruction culminated from the combination of poor farming practices and brutal drought conditions. The Dust Bowl of the 1930’s is the reminder of what consequences result from the work of over-ambitious, newly settled farmers. In return for neglecting the delicate balance of […]
North Carolina is Building its Local Food Economy by Supporting Beginning Farmers
In North Carolina, there is no shortage of support for local food but there is a real need for young farmers able to produce it. In 2007, North Carolina’s Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS) was struck by how much food the state imports from far away places. CEFS, which provides agricultural research and education […]
Farm Bill Clears the Senate – Your Input is Needed!
Last week, the Senate voted to pass the Farm Bill by a 64-35 margin. I was footsteps away in the Congressional Visitors Center talking to other students my age about the gravity of that moment. For a bill that authorizes nearly a trillion dollars in funding (much of which impacts the 45 million who receive […]
Pioneering Latino Farmer Training in Louisiana
When Kathia Duran, now the Executive Director of the Latino Farmers Cooperative of Louisiana, began selling her cheeses at farmers’ markets in the New Orleans area, she was one of only three Latino vendors. Although many of her fellow Latinos were also agriculturalists in the region, they did not have opportunities to access the direct […]
A Holistic Management Approach Improves the quality of life for beginning women farmers
Imagine a farmer-training program that not only boosts beginning farmers’ sustainable cropping skills and enhances their profits, but also teaches leadership and communication skills, and strengthens family decision-making. This whole farm approach is how Holistic Management International, an Albuquerque-based international non-profit, seeks to improve the quality of life and land for beginning women farmers. HMI, […]